Focus on Skagit County and Farming
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Skagit Watershed is Focus of What's Upstream Attack on Farmers
Thousands of Seattleites visit the beautiful Skagit Valley in tulip season. Much more than these wonderful flowers grow here in one of the most productive and bucolic areas in the nation. Potatoes, seed crops, vegetables, grains, berries, small fruit, beef cows and dairy products mix together creating a nearly unmatched variety of farm produce. Virtually all farms are family farms, dating back to the times when annual flooding and salt-water incursion were the primary hindrances to a family farm's survival. Today, the challenges are very different as anti-farm activists focus on this area with the intent to pass legislation that would severely damage farming here and destroy many of these multi-generational farms.
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EPA Report Shows Skagit Watershed Improvement
The ironic thing about the EPA-funded and supported attack on farming in the Skagit Valley is that the EPA has recognized the Skagit Watershed as one of the best in the state. Previous problems with fecal coliform contamination have been significant reduced, in part by a recognition that the focus on agriculture as the primary or exclusive cause is simply wrong. This EPA report shows the progress made and how addressing multiple sources was a key to its success. 
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